Case Study

Heuristic-Based DSS Moves MilkIn New Zealand

Company Background

• A major New Zealand dairy company-had 350 client farmers served by 12 tankers over two shifts.

• Because of rising client base and rising milk collection cost- Company decided to implement a heuristic-based DSS to improve milk tanker scheduling.

• Previous vehicle schedulers-Set up schedule manually, estimated milk supply by supplier, budget, attempted to minimize the cost per kilogram of milk.

DSS Implementation

• To solve routing problem, the company developed a model-based DSS-Fleetmanager

• Experience and preferences of the expert schedulers takes in to consideration

• The development team worked closely with schedulers and other experts in modeling.

• The vehicle routine models were solved to create solutions. Schedulers can observed these via a graphical user interface.

• Output screens of the system can be found at orms-today.com

Outcome Of Implementation

• Company’s collection cost have been decreased by more than 30%

• Schedule development time has decreased by more than 50%

• Client complaints have decreased by more than 60%

• Intangible benefits include a morale boost among schedulers.

• The heuristic methodology of the DSS developed for this company could be applied to almost all complex delivery system.